Column: Say no to bringing back bounty hunters

The commercial bail bond system was outlawed in Wisconsin in 1979 until out-of-state interest groups successfully lobbied current members of the state's elite Joint Finance Committee, which added this measure to the 2013-15 state budget in an omnibus motion early in the morning Wednesday.

If this measure stays in the budget, the bail bond system "pilot" will run for five years in Dane, Waukesha, Racine, Kenosha and Milwaukee counties and automatically will go statewide after five years.

Set aside that there is no fiscal necessity to this bill, so it does not belong in the state budget. There are countless reasons why this system is bad for us, no matter how it is re-introduced.

Judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, victim advocates and other agencies that provide services in the criminal justice system every day all resolutely are opposed to this unsafe, profit-motivated system. Rather than allowing judges and commissioners to make release and bail decisions based on their experience and/or the results of a validated risk instrument administered to each individual, the bail bond system allows potentially dangerous individuals out on the street while awaiting trial if they can afford only 10 percent of their bail. If an individual jumps bail, the bond agencies send bounty hunters, who are not required to be trained in law enforcement practices, to apprehend the "fugitive," potentially endangering others in the process.

Bail bondsmen provide no supervision to individuals prior to their appearance, whereas pretrial programs provide access to alcohol and other drug abuse treatment and education, mental health treatment, drug testing and other important services that increase the likelihood of appearance and decrease the likelihood of the person committing new offenses while on release.

The claim by the bail bond industry that their for-profit justice tactics increase appearance rates is false. The appearance rates in Wisconsin's courts generally are higher than the national average. There is also no relationship between jail population and a bail bond system, as the majority of states that have a bail bond system have worse jail overcrowding issues than Wisconsin.

This system would not create a large number of jobs in Wisconsin. The companies that would move in to issue bail bonds would have very few agents on the ground, and the profits would leave the state.

It is insulting for ill-informed legislators to tell their constituents that this system must be good because 46 other states have it. The bail bond industry generates incredible profits, which allows it to spend money to lobby to keep the system in place and move it into the few states that were able to abolish it.

Regardless of your political stripes, Wisconsin is a leader in providing high-quality and cost-effective pretrial court services, which makes all of us safer. Please tell your elected leaders that we should not go back to the days of bounty hunters.

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Column: Say no to bringing back bounty hunters

The commercial bail bond system was outlawed in Wisconsin in 1979 until out-of-state interest groups successfully lobbied current members of the state's elite Joint Finance Committee, which added

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